


remember the sting

by myhappyface



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 06:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myhappyface/pseuds/myhappyface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek buries Laura, take two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	remember the sting

It was the weekend after they let him out of county plus two days before Derek could get the death certificate and the Permit for Disposition from the courthouse, so he wound up paying seventy dollars for the two pieces of his sister’s corpse.

The coroner’s assistant said, “Look, I’m really not supposed to push this, but have you considered using one of the funeral homes in town? It’s just that her body--well, you’ve seen it,” and he made an awkward noise, rubbed his hand over his stomach where Laura was torn in half, “it can be--upsetting, to loved ones, even when the body is prepared for burial by a professional, but there's a lot they could do for her.” 

Derek didn’t say anything, but the guy handed him a few business cards after they put Laura in the car. Derek dropped them in the ashtray. He had a garbage bag taped over the gaping hole where his window used to be, and his dead sister in pieces in the back seat.

This was normally where Laura would roll her eyes at him and say, “The shit you get into, brother, I swear to god.” She'd try to fix his problem, whatever it was, and she'd flash her red eyes and tell him not to be so stupid, and he'd feel as safe as he ever felt.

 

Laura was fucking up her first year of college when Derek met Kate. She was the oldest, and she went the furthest away, and her infrequent calls home kept their parents on edge. It was the only reason a house full of werewolves hadn't acknowledged how he stunk of sex, no matter how many laps he did after school to disguise it.

They knew, though. They knew the way he knew, before he ever saw her, because of the smell, because his senses were wide open as he ran and amid the dead leaves and dirt was his sister, the only person he knew, the only person left alive who loved him.

 

Derek paced the distance between the well at the back of the house and the place he wanted to bury Laura, counting quietly to himself as he went. When he finally got the permit, the clerk went through all the requirements for burying remains on private land, unfazed by Derek’s frown and dismal eyebrows. She would be away from the water supply - which could be dry, for all Derek knew or cared - and far away from their nearest neighbor’s property boundary.

It took a while to dig the grave, and Derek zoned in and out. This one would be the full six feet, to prevent the next wayward teenager who happened by from digging up his sister’s fucking desecrated body without Derek noticing. The soft skin of his palms tore, bled, healed, and tore again. He should have gotten gloves when he got the shovel, but the woman at the hardware store only let him in begrudgingly, and looked to be one sudden move from calling the cops on him. He hadn't wanted to press his luck.

He spread the canvas sheet on the ground for Laura and laid her out carefully on it, brushed her hair, washed the stink of the morgue off her the way he wasn’t able to clean the mud from her face or the blood from her hands the first time. He wanted to bury her in something clean, but he hadn’t found the car she rented yet and he wasn’t putting her in the ground smelling like new clothes, smelling like nothing. 

It didn’t matter what she wore, he knew, because once she transformed she’d have her coat, but he put one of his shirts on her anyway. It was long on her. She was two years older than him but five inches shorter.

He wrapped the sheet around her and bound it up with rope and the wolfsbane flower. He had almost convinced himself that when the two pieces of her were reunited the shift would make her whole again, but it didn't. 

 

The sheriff arrived just as Derek finished covering over the grave with rocks. He got out of the cruiser immediately, but kept his distance until Derek looked up at him, and even then didn't get much closer.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said, quickly but sincerely. He was the first person to say that to Derek since they figured out who the body in the woods used to be. He looked like he wanted to say it when he put Derek in the holding cell, too. Derek kept quiet. The sheriff sighed and rubbed his face, something Derek saw him do several times during his interrogation. Like he would rather be doing anything else anywhere else. Derek realized that even though he spent hours with the man, he didn't know what the sheriff's first name was.

"I remember this," the sheriff said, and made an aborted gesture to the house. "I remember when this happened. I remember the funerals. I don't remember seeing you or your sister at them, though." 

He paused, like he wanted Derek to say why they left, why they cut out after seeing the burning wreck of their home and stayed gone for six years, but when Derek didn't, he said, "I think you had the right idea, son."

Against his will, Derek felt himself startle. He hadn't been anyone's son in a long time, and the angry cloud of _fuck off_ he radiated most days made older men feel unsettled, not paternal. The sheriff looked a little like he wanted to take it back, but he kept going. 

"I'm not trying to run you out of town. I just don't think there's anything good left for you here. Why don't you think about it."

He stared at Derek for a long minute, then shook his head like he knew already it had been a waste of time and got back into his car.

 

It was possible that burying Laura twice was his penance for Kate. For loving her even after, for pretending she didn't do it or was forced into it by her family, for imagining she would find him at the diner he bused at and explain everything so his world made sense again. For wishing he had been home, so he wouldn't have to know how big a fool he was, or have to live with it until Kate caught up with them to finish the job. For being too selfish to tell Laura what he'd done and lose her, too, because he was no good on his own.

Maybe it was _their_ penance, for skipping town before the funeral services for their family, for leaving Uncle Peter in long-term care with strangers instead of bringing him with them or coming to get him when they finally started feeling safe, for never, ever looking back until Laura decided she wanted to go home.

Derek took his car to the mechanic's, to have the window replaced and the interior detailed. 

It still smelled like a coffin when he came back for it.

Maybe it was just his shitty luck.

**Author's Note:**

> I've only seen through episode three, so I hope this isn't too out of whack with the rest of the season's timeline. Title from Tallhart's "Wolves."


End file.
